Queering the Map is a community-generated mapping project that geo-locates queer moments, memories and histories in both cyber and physical space.
Problems and Purpose
Queering the Map is a community-generated mapping project that geo-locates queer moments, memories, and histories in relation to physical space. As queer life becomes increasingly less centered around specific neighborhoods and the buildings within them, notions of ‘queer spaces’ become more abstract and less tied to concrete geographical locations. The intent of the Queering the Map project is to collectively document the spaces that hold queer memory, from park benches to parking garages, to mark moments of queerness wherever they occur.[1]
Background History and Context
Queering the Map was started in 2017 by Lucas LaRochelle as a class project at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada. The project gained international recognition after being shared on Facebook by Montreal DJ Frankie Teardröp in 2018. Since then, the number of pins on the map has gone from hundreds to thousands, and has been used by people all over the world. [2]
Organizing, Supporting, and Funding Entities
The project was developed by Luca LaRochelle who continues to run it independently.[3]
Participant Recruitment and Selection
Anyone with an internet connection can access Queering the Map's website and add a pin to the map. Participating does not require signing-up or logging-in and users may post anonymously.[4]
Methods and Tools Used
Participatory Mapping is a technique that involves the creation of maps by local communities. Community-generated maps are a visible representation of how the community or individual community members perceive the place and the significant features within it. The process of mapping can contribute to building community cohesion, help to engage participants to be involved in decision-making, raising awareness about issues of community, identity, ownership, and design/planning. [5]
Queering the Map gives its users full autonomy over the process: from defining what constitutes "an act of queering space" to adding it on the map.[6]
What Went On: Process, Interaction, and Participation
Hundreds of thousands of people all over the world have participated in Queering the Map. Participants navigate to https://queeringthemap.com/ and:
- Find the location of their queer moment on the map
- Click on it
- Add a description of their moment to the text box
- Click the 'ADD' button[7]
Writing in early 2018, CityLab reported that over 5000 pins had been added to the map since the project's launch the previous year.[8] According to Queering the Map's Facebook page, that number reached 10,000 on April 16, 2018.[9]
Acts of queering space documented on the map range from direct action and activism, to a conversation expressing preferred pronouns, and flirtatious glances to weekend-long sex parties. The project team believes that queer history matters, and they encourage elders of the community to add moments and places of historical significance to the map that enrich our collective memory.[10]
Posts to Queering the Map are moderated to ensure that no spam or hateful content is added to the site. Users are encouraged to contact the site's administrator if there is anything they feel should be removed, or if they would like their own post to be deleted.[11]
Influence, Outcomes, and Effects
According to LaRochelle's personal website, "as queer life becomes increasingly less centered around specific neighborhoods and the buildings within them, notions of ‘queer space’ become more abstract and less tied to concrete geographical locations. The intent of Queering the Map is to collectively document the spaces that hold queer memory, from park benches to parking garages — to mark moments of queerness wherever they occur."[12] According to CityLab, " As Queering the Map grows, it has the potential to document how these spaces have evolved over time...In this way, the map can be a powerful vehicle for queer history, which has often been neglected, gone undocumented, or been erased all together."[13]
Through mapping, these ephemeral moments, Queering the Map aims to create a living archive of queer experience that reveals the ways in which we are intimately connected.[14] Like other forms of participatory mapping, 'Queering the map' -- naming and pinning a the queer event -- is an act of self-expression, representation, and the assertion of rights and identity. [15]
Analysis and Lessons Learned
There has been no academic analysis of this project.
According to CityLab, Queering the Map, like other crowdsourced data projects, is vulnerable to spammers and hackers. Malicious users began posting irrelevant, hateful or otherwise negative content as the the map's popularity grew in early 2018.[16] The evening of Feb 8-9 saw the addition of numerous identical pins with messages supporting U.S. President Donald Trump[17] who has and continues to take actions and make statements in opposition to LGBTQ rights.[18] In response, the map was taken offline while a new, more secure version was developed by eight volunteers on GitHub, a collaborative platform for coders and HTML designers. CityLab states that the new version of the site has a "moderator panel to screen for hateful content."[19]
See Also
References
[1] “Queering The Map.” Queering The Map, 2019. https://queeringthemap.com/.
[2] Martín Echenique and Alastair Boone, “A Crowdsourced Map of the Queer World.” CityLab, February 14, 2018. https://www.citylab.com/life/2018/02/how-to-queer-the-mapand-fend-off-an-attack/552824/.
[3] Echenique and Boone, "A Crowdsourced Map of the Queer World."
[4] “Queering The Map.”
[5] Juri Lienert. “Participatory Mapping for Decision Making.” SSWM, April 27, 2018. https://sswm.info/planning-and-programming/decision-making/deciding-community/participatory-mapping-for-decision-making.
[6] “Queering The Map.”
[7] “Queering The Map.”
[8] Echenique and Boone, "A Crowdsourced Map of the Queer World."
[9] Queering the Map, Facebook Post, April 16, 2018, accessed Jan 28, 2019, https://www.facebook.com/queeringthemap/photos/a.1535981429844744/1599442513498635/?type=3&theater
[10] “Queering The Map.”
[11] “Queering The Map.”
[12] Lucas Larochelle, "Queering the Map," Lucas Larochelle, accessed January 29, 2019 from http://lucaslarochelle.com/queering-the-map-3/.
[13] Echenique and Boone, "A Crowdsourced Map of the Queer World."
[14] “Queering The Map.”
[15] Lienert, “Participatory Mapping for Decision Making.”
[16] Echenique and Boone, "A Crowdsourced Map of the Queer World."
[17] Echenique and Boone, "A Crowdsourced Map of the Queer World."
[18] “Donald Trump.” GLAAD, January 28, 2019. https://www.glaad.org/tap/donald-trump.
[19] Echenique and Boone, "A Crowdsourced Map of the Queer World."
External Links
Official website: https://queeringthemap.com/
Notes
Rights to adapt and publish text from the Queering the Map website were given by Queering the Map's site administrator.